This blog was created by the Purdue Beef Team as an educational forum for beef producers and Extension educators. It includes timely news, issues, and management tips that have the potential to affect the beef business and decision-making process. Opinions expressed in the news clips do not necessarily represent those of Purdue University or the beef industry.

Daily Archives: May 1, 2017

The month of May is traditionally the time when “spring round-ups” take place. This is the time that large and small cow/calf operations schedule the “working” of the calves. As the majority of the calves reach their second month of life, it is time to castrate the male calves and immunize all of the calves to protect them against blackleg. In some situations, calves may be vaccinated for the respiratory diseases (i.e., IBR and BVD). Check with your large animal veterinarian about these immunizations.

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Creep feeding provides supplementary nutrition to nursing calves. It can increase a calf’s daily rate of gain, as well as weaning weight. Whether it will benefit your production depends on several factors. "Economics should drive the decision [to creep feed or not]," says Matt Luebbe, a feedlot and nutrition specialist at the University of Nebraska – Lincoln. "If the return or the cost of gain is too much, it isn’t worth it."

We have all become accustomed to seeing labels on food that boast of what is not in the food product: antibiotic free, GMO free, hormone free, and taste free. Labels that make claims about how the product was produced are also common: organic, cage free, or raised in air conditioning with cable TV.

As we see the industry average share of Choice in the fed cattle mix upwards of 70% and Prime over 5%, it’s not uncommon that I’m engaged in conversations with cattle feeders achieving Certified Angus Beef brand acceptance rates greater than 40% on some of their better pens. In these days of cheap costs of gain relative to the selling price of cattle, we often also see more Yield Grade (YG) 4s than any of us would aim for, sometimes from 20% to 30% or even higher.

Minnesota-based Cargill has struck a deal to sell its last two cattle feeding yards to ethanol producer Green Plains for $36.7m, after offloading similar cattle farms to Friona Industries in 2016. The sale of the Colorado and Kansas cattle feed yards to Green Plains completes Cargill’s departure from cattle feed operations, highlighting its focus on meat processing.

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When the Kansas Livestock Association called to ask if we’d serve as a host family for the Kansas Farm Food Connection "Get The Dirt" Contest giving one lucky urban family a behind the scenes, fun packed day on the farm, we said "Of course!"… And then the madness ensued!